American Airlines plans to pack more people onto its planes

American Airlines is planning to add more seats to its narrow body jets.

Think your flight's crowded now? American Airlines says it expects to squeeze more seats into the coach sections on many of its planes.

The plans were disclosed in a statement from Lauri Curtis, the airline's vice president of flight services, to the airline's flight attendants. The additional seats will mean that the flights will be required by law to have an additional flight attendant on board each flight.

"We expect to add seats to the 737 and MD-80 fleets, but we haven't yet determined the right number of seats," she wrote. The airline is looking for ways to increase revenue after its merger with US Airways.

But Boyd said that the reduction in legroom might not be as bad as passengers might fear. He said that while two extra rows would squeeze an extra 2.5 inches out of each existing row, the new, less bulky seats will free up most of that space. Reconfiguring a plane's bathrooms and galley can also save space. Altogether, he said, passengers will lose about an inch of legroom.

"Is this going to improve comfort? Not on a bet. Is it going be worse? Not necessarily," he said.